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once have seized and carried me into his dark abodes: but though Jesus lay in the state of the dead, it was to rob Death of his terrors, to make it appear that now there is nothing so formidable in the laying down this earthly tabernacle in the grave, or in the soul's departure from the whole present state of things into an untried, unknown, and unimagined kind of subsistence without the body in a spiritual world. In this state of the dead my Lord made a short continuance in his way of glory; he explored the depths of these mansions that wait for me; he made a visit to the grave and hell; he went as a forerunner, to let me see that though the way be dark it is not dreadful; he would go through it himself before me, that I might be reconciled to the passage by which I must go to everlasting life. (He went as a Conqueror to receive the submission and the homage of this old king of terrors, even in his own dominions.) When at any time I forget my Lord was buried and descended into hell, I find something more than awful in the thought of my body's being laid in the grave, eaten up by worms, and mouldering to dust; and I am ready to say to my soul, to what unknown condition wilt thou be transported when thou must leave the things that are here for ever? Wilt thou be reduced to nothing? or wilt thou wander up and down, at the will of other more powerful spirits, visiting tombs, and hovering about the solitary places where bodies sleep? or what else will become of thee? But, when I see Jesus in the state of death, I am reconciled and perfectly set at ease. I cry out, Grave, where is thy victory? I say, my Redeemer was buried and descended into hell, and I will securely venture where he has gone before me; though I know not what it is to die, though the grave and hell import a state wherewith I am utterly unacquainted, yet will I cheerfully enter the unexperienced regions of the dead, and fear no evil from a state of being which my Saviour by his presence therein has vindicated from possibility of misery. But,

Fourthly. While I thus declare my belief of Christ's burial and descent into hell in the execution of his mediatorial office, and to make the way to heaven safe and comfortable, I profess my obligation and purpose of being conformed hereunto.

First. In an acknowledgment of the vanity of my present

estate.

Secondly. In a daily dying to this present life.

Thirdly. In preparing myself for the approaching state of separation.

First. When I profess that Christ was buried and descended into hell as my representative, I mean to acknowledge the vanity of my present estate. Pride did once persuade me to think myself something. It suggested to me the health, the vigour, the comeliness, of my body; it whispered to my foolish heart the more noble qualifications of my reasonable powers, my parts, and wisdom, and knowledge; it insisted on various things that distinguished me from others, and intimated that I was lord of the creatures. Fired with the too-pleasing thought, I conceited myself considerable, and was restless to be more so. I would make a figure; I would not remain destitute of any reputable qualification, I would enlarge my circumstances, I would have wherewith to take my full range of ease and pleasure. I said, when I shall have obtained such additions, and disengaged myself from such restraints, I shall have the full desire of my heart. Thus was I borne along by the pride of life, depending altogether upon the supposed sufficiencies of this present world, when Providence brought death before me by taking off a dear relation. I attended the dying bed. The sight shook my confidence. I saw the labouring body panting for breath, the whole frame shattered even to the loss of every sense, and heard the expiring

I retired in confusion, and was forced to say, Surely man is vanity! what profit or help can the world afford against death? I felt the meaning of these awful words, "What is man that is a worm, and the son of man that is a worm?" I said, I will be wise, I will consider my latter end. My friends came about me; with a decent civility they lamented my loss, said something of the departed, and fell into ordinary conversation for diverting my grief. I thought the discourse unseasonable; the views I had before me could not permit me to relish it. They departed, and others supplied their place with the same mistaken kindness. The last ceremonies for the dead passed over; I returned to my former employments. Insensibly my eyes closed to the thought of death, and the world began to recover its former importance. Just then Mercy interposed. A thought, I know not how, forced itself upon me, that death

was the wages of sin. It lay upon my mind. It would not be removed. Death seemed near, and I saw sin was the only cause of it. It came so mightily upon me, that I was driven to my knees. I grew uneasy. I took the Bible. Every word I read condemned me. I could see nothing behind me but sin; and Death stood threatening to cut me down. I plainly saw my misery and helplessness. Wherewith could I possibly come before the Lord? I soon found there was no help for me but in God. But would God have mercy upon me? I had heard of Jesus, and had a thousand times called him my Saviour; but now I found that I had never believed him to be the Saviour he is. Yet I knew there was no help for me but in him. I was satisfied that I must search the Scriptures, which testify of him. I did so both with diligence and importunate prayer. From that blessed book the light shone upon me. I saw there that he was the Son of God, and grew by degrees acquainted with the purpose of his coming into the world. The more I knew of this amazing method for saving sinners, the more I admired and liked it. I saw the import and meaning of all the actions of Jesus, his life and death, his resurrection from the state of death, and exaltation to the right hand of God. These showed me my real character as well as God's. Here I have seen and do see myself a sinner, a criminal, a wretch consigned to the dominion of death, and by death to be delivered over to judgment and hell. Hence I have learnt to judge what the world is, and every man in it. In my continual thoughts I follow my Redeemer from heaven to the cradle, from the cradle to the cross, from thence to the grave and hell, and all for my salvation, and cry out in the bottom of my spirit, What then is man? O what a lie is pride! And where are all the sufficiencies of the world? I say to my soul, The Lord of glory took on him thy estate, to save thee; and see whither it has brought him, low as the very grave and hades. See, my soul, see the truth of thy condition! It is this teaches me what I could never learn from the death of thousands about me, from all the uncertainties and vexations of life, from all the reasonings with which philosophy could furnish me, nay, which I never knew from all the Scriptures of God, till I learnt from them the meaning of Christ's death, burial, and descent into hell. Here I learnt

the vanity, the misery, of myself and the world. Here all my pride bows, and I feel myself to be nothing, and all the pomp of life to be a dream and delusion. Wherefore,

Secondly. Knowing, as I thus do, the vanity of my present estate, I profess it my duty, and declare that it is and shall be my daily endeavour, to die unto it. I look on myself as in the grave with Christ. I acknowledge the import of my baptism, and regard myself as buried with him therein into death. That burial I propose, God enabling me, to make good. I am dead to sin by profession, being buried with him; nor can I any further engage my heart in the pursuits of this present life. have determined therefore, as one buried with Jesus, to live the rest of my time upon earth in the constant mortification of every earthly affection. I will look upon my Master lying in the grave, and say, Lord, I will die with thee. My life is at thy disposal; take it when thou pleasest, when thou needest for thy interest and glory. And while thou sufferest me to be here, still will I die with thee; for as one dead I have renounced the world. As if I were already laid in my grave, I will endeavour to disregard the pleasures, the interests, the praise, the honours of life. O take me more abundantly out of this present evil world, and fashion my heart and life into a greater conformity to thy death and burial! Enable me increasingly to die to the things of sight and sense; to use the world as not abusing it; to be content in every state; to enjoy the blessings of life with a greater indifference and readiness to part with them at thy will; to endure every kind of affliction, especially for thy sake, with enlarging patience and thankfulness; to fear always, and peculiarly in every change of condition; to sit more casy to good as well as to evil report; to be more disengaged from the men as well as things of the world; to get further above the influence of worldly example and man's authority, the apprehension of poverty and the dread of depending on others; and grant that I may be able to prove more and more the truth of this my death, through the Spirit, to every present thing, by the meekness, the forbearance, the peaceableness, the liberality, the contentedness, the absence of all carefulness for the morrow, manifest in my whole conduct. Lord, I would be perfectly buried with thee; I would have the whole spirit of a pilgrim

here upon earth. Like one seeking another country I would live. O let me have the whole proof of thy burial in my heart and life! And let me testify my belief of thy burial and descent into hell by such a temper and conduct as shall convince those who observe my conversation that there is a power in thee as it were lying in the grave to raise the souls of thy people above the love of everything great, and the dread of everything terrible, here below; and to force the world of unbelievers to own, that there is that in thy religion which can make a man, even in the abundance of all things, to desire to depart and be with thee as far better. Thus do I determine, endeavour, and pray to die daily unto this present life, as buried with thee. And,

Thirdly. In conformity with thy lying in the state of the dead, I would be preparing for my approaching state of separation. I determined to regard, and desire to treat, this body of mine as under sentence of death, as soon to depart into the grave where my Lord also lay. Wherefore I am resolved to bring it under and keep it in subjection, that in none of its appetites it may have the indulgence which I well know it will be always craving. I will endeavour to maintain it in the strictest temperance, nor will I give it any allowance of sloth or excess. I will no more pamper it with gluttonous or luxurious living, nor yield to any of its solicitations for gratification in drink, nor suffer it to defile my soul with its lascivious inclinations. I will be continually putting it in remembrance that it had a principal hand in the first sin, that it has led me into numberless iniquities, that it is soon to return to the dust out of which it was taken, and, were it not for Jesus, that it would lie for ever in the flames that never shall be quenched. I will prepare it as I can for the departing hour, and reconcile it to the expectation of being laid in the grave by the consideration of Christ's burial. In a word, it shall be waiting for the change, and taught to meet it without drawing back.

And for my soul, it shall be my endeavour that it be every day more and more furnished for the world of spirits. To enter into that invisible world, nothing but holiness, I am well assured, can prepare me. I will not therefore say, Soul, thou

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